Wireless docking is a technique that uses wireless technology (e.g., the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11n standard, IEEE 802.11 ac standard, etc.) to dock a computing device without the need of physically connecting to a docking station. After establishing the wireless docking connection, the user is able to use an external mouse, an ergonomic keyboard, and a distinct monitor (which is usually larger than the display of the computing device).
To provide wireless docking, the display of a computing device is encoded and wirelessly sent to a docking adapter through a wireless connection (e.g., Wi-Fi®). The docking adapter receives compressed display data (e.g., Wi-Fi® packets), decodes the compressed display data, and sends the decoded display data to the distinct monitor. Universal Serial Bus (USB) over Internet Protocol (IP) packets (i.e., USB data from keyboard and mouse) may be sent back to the computing device using the wireless connection.
To preserve a high quality of text during docking usage, a higher encoder rate is desired, and thus a higher throughput on the wireless connection is needed (e.g., 30 Mbps). The IEEE 802.11n standard provides approximately a 150 Mbps physical rate using a 2×2 multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) wireless communication and a 20 MHz channel. The actual total channel throughput is approximately 80 Mbps. Using a wider, 40 MHz channel doubles the system throughput. When wireless docking is deployed in a dense office environment, 20 or 30 concurrent docking users may need to be accommodated, and thus capacity becomes the major concern.
Wi-Fi® uses non-licensed spectrum including 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz bands. A traditional 2.4 GHz band has three non-overlapping 20 MHz channels and thus has to share the channel with many consumer products (i.e., Bluetooth, microwave, etc.). The 5 GHz band has a wider bandwidth (e.g., 22 non-overlapping 20 MHz channels in the US.). In addition, technology that uses the nearly completed IEEE 802.11ac standard will debut soon. The IEEE 802.11ac standard may be implemented to provide an 867 Mbps physical rate when a 2×2 MIMO and an 80 MHz channel are used. The IEEE 802.11ac standard also supports a more efficient modulation scheme and may bond wider channel bandwidth, up to 160 MHz, to improve link speed. However, the wider bandwidth increases susceptibility to co-channel and adjacent channel interference.